Everpurse patents phone-charging system for purses and more

If you're thinking of making a phone-charging handbag, hang on a second: Chicago-based Everpurse has gotten a patent on the relevant technology, which earned it attention and a corporate partnership in recent years.

Now it has the rights to a "personal wireless charging system" that covers any "personal storage item" with a storage location that "includes sidewalls and a lower wall" — also known as a pocket — and a wireless induction charger.

Sounds a lot like Everpurse's handbags, which include pockets that can charge iPhones without cords. Users charge the bags in advance on provided wireless induction mats. Some other charging bags on the market power phones by plugging into included battery packs, which are in some cases removable.

Everpurse burst onto the scene in 2012 with a Kickstarter that more than doubled its goal but it struggled to produce subsequent products. Its second Kickstarter campaign failed, and the company angered customers in 2014 and 2015 when it left orders unfilled without explanation to customers.

Dan Salcedo — who co-founded Everpurse with his wife, CEO Liz Salcedo ⇒— told Blue Sky in 2015 the company was moving away from producing its own bags and toward licensing its technology to others. He said it was working with 22 brands, but declined to name any other than Kate Spade.

"We are not sharing details on upcoming projects, yet," Salcedo wrote in an email to Blue Sky last week in response to a request for comment on the company's plans.

The patent's language is broad enough to cover any sort of "personal storage item," so if Everpurse wanted to create, for example, a jacket with a built-in storage pocket, it could.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Daniel Kegan, a Chicago-based intellectual property lawyer, said that kind of breadth is important, as long as patent-writers don't include pre-existing technologies to which they have no claim. For example, Everpurse would not be able to claim a patent on a wireless induction charger for electronic devices, since that already exists, he said.

"On the other hand, if they did limit it to this device in a purse, that would be kind of silly because it might be handy to use the same kind of device in an overcoat or backpack or even on a bicycle," he said.

Everpurse will now be able to protect itself by going after others who it believes are infringing on its patent. If it catches another company improperly making, using or selling devices using the system outlined in the patent, it could sue for damages. But Kegan said tracking that kind of infringement is difficult, particularly for goods coming in from outside the country.

The value of the patent also depends on the demand for this type of technology in the market. James Moar, a senior analyst covering emerging technology at Juniper Research, said retailers do not typically see charging capabilities as a major draw, which makes them less likely to stock items with that feature alongside regular apparel and accessories.

And with the proliferation of affordable, portable charging devices, Everpurse may not necessarily provide a more convenient option.

"The Everpurse and some others like it do not get around the problem that charging apparel itself needs to be charged," Moar wrote in an email to Blue Sky.